WWE Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth is the fourth game in the Smackdown line up on
the Playstation consoles. I haven’t really loved or hate the Smackdown games,
they have always been just there. They’ll be addicting as heck for the first few
weeks I own it, and then they’ll be thrown into my pile of wrestling games
featuring classic stinkers like WCW Nitro, the Dreamcast version of WWF Royal
Rumble, and ECW Anarchy Rulz. SYM delivers more of the same game play as found
in previous installments of the series, but boasts a revamped Season mode and
some more extra tweaks in return. Let’s see if these new additions will spark a
breath of fresh air into the Smackdown franchise.

Roster

The 30 to 40 man rosters that were in the last crop of wrestling games are no
more. You’ll be glad to know that SYM contains over 60 wrestlers. All the key
players are here like Triple H, Kurt Angle, and the superstar with the fastest
rise to the top in the history of the WWE, Brock Lesnar. Other stars that
haven’t been seen on WWE television in several months still manage to sneak
their way into SYM such as Steve Austin, The Rock, Kevin Nash, Rhyno, and Hulk
Hogan.

Besides the behemoth that is Brock Lesnar, several other rookies that debuted
this year are also in Shut Your Mouth. Some of these are Tough Enough champion
Maven and Randy Orton. Also noteworthy is if you enter create-a-wrestler mode
and select to view the sample models. The first three samples are near perfect
creations of new WWE stars John Cena, Christopher Nowinski, and Jamie Knoble.

Graphics

If you thought the graphics from Just Bring It were good then wait until you
take a look at what SYM showcases. The character models are as distinctive as
ever, and you’ll notice all the tiny elements like the wrinkled faces of Ric
Flair and Hulk Hogan, to the baldness of Kurt Angle. All the textures seem to
have gotten a big improvement from the ones in JBI. The way the hair is animated
looks great, and it doesn’t tend to float through the wrestlers as much as it
did in the last game. The arenas also look good with all the memorizing designs
of the entrance stages looking better than ever.

Most of the crowd is still 2D sprites, which hurts the presentation provided by
the stellar character models, but at least the first couple of rows at ringside
now sport 3D models. I don’t know if the 3D models have anything to do with it,
but you can’t wrestle into the crowds anymore like you could in JBI, which was
one of my favorite things to do in that game. The entrances for the wrestlers
are well done. I made sure to gaze at each wrestler’s entrance at least once as
they walked to the ring. The developers at Yuke’s did a tremendous job at
mimicking each wrestler’s taunts they do on their way to the squared circle. For
example, the Hulkster does an awesome job at air guitar, and Steve Austin does
his famous four corner salute.

The animation for the moves looks great, especially the trademark moves like the
Stone Cold Stunner and F5. One slick effect added in SYM is the ability to have
the camera to do a 360 “Matrix” effect where it rotates around a finishing move
being performed, and blurs out all the surroundings by simply holding L1 while
you do your move. I like this added touch, and whenever I do it I get a
sensation of good ‘ol Jim Ross calling the event shouting out comments like
“Stone Cold! Stunner! Stone Cold! Stone Cold!” There are a few more loading
times than in JBI, but to make up for it the loading screens have a great pin up
of a wrestler showcasing a tip of how to do one of the many moves in the game.

Sound

I’m sure you’ve heard about the god-awful commentary featured in Just Bring It.
You’ll be happy to know that Michael Cole and Tazz got canned from the
commentator’s booth in Shut Your Mouth, and are replaced by the preferred team
of Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler. The long pauses in commentary that
plagued the last game are nowhere to be found in SYM. However, the commentary
isn’t as continuous, and is a bit more sporadic during game play instead. I like
this commentary more than the last game, but I do wish a little more effort
could've been involved. Good continuous commentary was done before in games like
WWF Attitude and WCW Mayhem, and perhaps the developers should look back at
those games if they ever want to perfect the feel of a WWE event.

The background music is more generic guitar riffs that seem to be popular among
most wrestling games. Most of this stuff is fairly passable, but it would be
nice to have an option to include a random wrestler’s theme music being played
in the background. This happens for a brief moment whenever a new wrestler
enters competition in the Royal Rumble mode, but it’d make a world of difference
if the developers would actually have in run continually in a game for once. It
was done only once before in Wrestlemania Challenge for the NES, and I’ve been
anticipating for it to happen again ever since.

Speaking of theme music, Just Bring It takes a page out of Wrestlemania X8 for
Gamecube by not including the themes for a handful of wrestlers such as Maven,
Stacy Kiebler, Matt & Jeff Hardy, and Tajiri. Other than those exemptions, the
rest of the themes in the game are in tact and include many of the new themes
found in the musical releases of Forceable Entry and Anthology this year. There
are also a few surprises in here like Hulk Hogan’s old “Real American” theme
being included, and the first game ever to feature Hulk’s current theme he’s
been using since 1996, which is “Voodoo Child” by Jimmy Hendrix. Let me assure
you this, Hulk Hogan & classic rock fans will be in heaven the first time they
view the Hulkster’s killer entrance as he plays air guitar to Hendrix!

Game play

The insane fast pace of past Smackdown titles never did leave a lasting
impression on me, other than the fact that they got stale fast. Wrestlers stayed
on the ground only for a couple of seconds after a finishing move was executed,
and submission holds only lasted a brief moment. Are there any improvements to
the game mechanics in SYM? Well, yes and no. Wrestlers actually stay on the
ground for more extended periods of time. However, this may be the case after a
signature move such as the Rock Bottom, or right in the beginning of a match up
from a simple body slam. This just make things get frustrating all too fast, and
sometimes it can ruin the game for you.

Other new inclusions in game play are interactive environments, and being able
to use weapons with moves. This means wrestlers will be able to climb onto the
top of the entrance stage or other parts of a backstage area and deliver a body
splash or other attacks much like in the last ever WCW video game, Backstage
Assault. Mixing weapons in moves mean you can pull off the coolest maneuvers
seen on television, such as Rob Van Dam’s Van Terminator! Another slick feature
is being able to get on and ride the Undertaker’s motorcycle over opponents. You
can also rip the padding off of turnbuckles and use it as an advantage against
your opponents.

Most of my complaints about the controls from the last Smackdown game, Just
Bring It are still apparent in Shut Your Mouth. Matches still progress all too
fast. The average singles match usually is over in less than two minutes. Some
of the major attacks from turnbuckles only result in mildly stunning your
opponent, when they should be knocking their ass out! Much like everyone else, I
prefer the game play of WWF No Mercy more than this. And when a two year old
Nintendo 64 wrestling game features better game play than a brand spanking new
one, that’s not a good thing, it’s a bad thing!

The main single player mode from Just Bring It that was known as “Story Mode,”
while a fresh effort, resulted in tedious game play and getting repetitious
fairly fast. The amount of interaction and the presentation was like no other
wrestling game before it, but after seeing it for the tenth time in a row, it
was really starting to grow on my nerves. SYM now has a revamped single player
game called “Season Mode” where you progress through two years of actual WWE
programming.

The cool thing about Season mode is you start off where the actual programming
in the WWE circled around earlier this year. I’m speaking of the draft that
split the WWE talent into two separate rosters: RAW and Smackdown. You have the
option of competing in the draft and picking your side of wrestlers and watch in
anxiety to see if your foe gets to your pick before you. Or you have the option
of customizing the roster for each talent roster, or skip through the draft and
have the computer randomize it all for you.

The season mode plays out on a week-by-week basis like in Wrestlemania 2000 on
N64, but with more storylines and interaction on your part like in Just Bring It
where you roam around in a first person view before each match so you can start
grudges or get title shots. These two elements combine for one compelling
experience. You can select a lower tiered wrestler, or enter a created wrestler
and start them from the bottom of the ranks. They’ll be curtain-jerkers for B
level shows, and you’ll slowly advance their way through the ladder progressing
onto title shots, and Pay-Per-View matches. If you don’t want to bother with
that hassle, then you can automatically select one of the bigger stars in SYM
and automatically be in PPV matches and main events.

The plethora of modes from Just Bring It is back in Shut Your Mouth. I’m still
in awe that they manage to fit this much variety in here. All the usual matches
like single, tag team, triple threat, fatal four way, royal rumbles, and cage
matches are in here. The popular gimmick matches from before like Hell in a
Cell, Ladder, Table, TLC, and Iron Man contests are all still in tact. My
preferred matches are the intense Survival and Elimination bouts. Survival is a
blast because you can throw up to six men in a ring (with no way of going
outside the ring) in a free for all where you have to eliminate each man
one-by-one, and the sole survivor is the winner! Elimination plays out similar
to Survivor Series matches where teams of two or three compete against each
other, and the team to eliminate everybody from the other squad first, wins.

I was stunned by the depth of the create-a-wrestler featured in Just Bring It.
It was the best I’ve seen in the American market of wrestling games in quite
some time. I thought there was no way they could improve on it. I couldn’t have
been more wrong. When creating the appearance of your grappler, you’ll
automatically notice some convenient features like thumbnails of each item. Each
tile of nine thumbnails gives you an early impression of what to expect of each
sample. Another new feature to the CaW is the ability to “age” skin textures.
This is great to tinker with if you want your wrestler to look as wrinkled as
Mr. T, or as disgruntled as George Bush. There are also loads of new created
parts to be used in the game, and you’ll be spending a lot of time glancing
through all of them.

Creating your own diversified set of moves for your grappler is a must for any
hardcore fan, but if you’re too lazy to do so, you can choose one of several
presets available to you. I’m amazed at how long it takes to go through each
available option in order to be satisfied with the end result. When it was all
said and done for me, my ultimate creation (dubbed the ingenious “Big D”) took
me two and a half hours to complete. I’m sure it’ll take the same amount of
time, if not longer, for you.

The other creation options from JBI like Taunts and Stables also return in SYM.
Stables is still in tact from how you remember it in JBI, but Taunt got a whole
new makeover. Instead of combining several taunts into one unique taunt like
before, you now have the option of customizing one individual taunt down to the
tiniest detail. For example, if you choose the infamous Hulk Hogan taunt where
he waves to the crowd, you can set it to where you can Hulk’s lips smiling,
being blunt, and so on. You can also change the position of the hands into being
fisted, flat, or whatever. If you’ve been dying to create your own unique taunt,
then you’ll love what this version has in store for you.

Replay Value

Unlocking the hidden items is different than Just Bring It. Whenever you win a
PPV match; you are shown five items you can select to unlock. These range from
movies, parts used for Create-a-Wrestler, and wrestlers to be used in Season
mode. Each season only lasts two years, so that means if you are granted a spot
on every succeeding PPV and win each one then you must complete Season mode two
and a half times in order to unlock everything. That’s about a good 30 hours of
single player gaming right there! Thankfully, there’s enough depth and variety
so that the game play doesn’t get as stale like it did in Just Bring It. If you
have two multi taps, then up to six people can play SYM simultaneously. The
wealthy amount of modes and the superb creation options are also good enough to
keep you hooked until the next game comes out.

In Brief

+: Superb character models, huge roster, loads of game play modes, best
create-a-wrestler out there

-: The fast paced arcade game play doesn’t float my boat, still some faulty
control issues, a few more loading times than before

RATINGS

Graphics: 9.4
Sound: 7.5
Game play: 7.8
Replay Value: 9.1

Overall: 8.4

Comments

Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth is a little bit better than Just Bring It. The
overhauled Season mode is eons better than the Story Mode in the last game. The
loads of options and great create-a-wrestler the series is known for still
remains the same. The same crappy control engine also stays the same, and you’d
think that by the fourth game in the series that they’d give it a new overhaul.
While the vast amount of modes available and the great Season mode make up for
the same crappy engine this time around, I don’t know how forgiving I’m going to
be for the next game.

Fans of the series will eat this one up again. However, if you got to have one
wrestling game on the PS2 that promises something new and fresh I suggest
looking into Def Jam Vendetta (which is developed by the same people who made
the award winning N64 wrestlers like No Mercy & Revenge) or Legends of Wrestling
2 this holiday season.